Hashim al-Atassi

Hashim al-Atassi (1875-5 December 1960) was the President of Syria from 21 December 1936 to 7 July 1939 (succeeding Muhammad Ali Bay al-Abid and preceding Bahij al-Khatib), from December 1949 to 24 December 1951 (succeeding Husni al-Za'im and preceding Fawzi Selu), and from 1 March 1954 to 6 September 1955, succeeding Adib Shishakli and preceding Shukri al-Quwatli.

Biography
Hashim al-Atassi was born in 1875 in Homs Ottoman Syria, and from 1888 to 1918 he served as governor of numerous regions of the Ottoman Empire, including Anatolia, Homs, Hama, Baalbek, and Anatolia, and in 1920 he became chairman of the Syrian National Congress. In October 1927 he formed the Syrian National Bloc to fight for independence from France after France annexed Syria, and in 1936 he became the first President of the Republic of Syria, an autonomous region under France. He held this post three times, and in 1949 he succeeded Husni al-Za'im as president after he was overthrown in a coup. Fawzi Selu implemented military rule in December 1951 and overthrew Atassi, but in 1954 he returned to power after the overthrow of another dictator, Adib Shishakli. He defied Gamal Abdel Nasser's policy of pan-Arabism and socialism, but the Nasserists in the Syrian Army forced him to turn down the Baghdad Pact agreement to contain communism. He died in 1960.